Shimla, Jan 3 (IANS) Shimla’s bone-chilling weather notwithstanding, more than 100 skaters from across the country have gathered in this Himachal Pradesh capital for a three-day national ice skating championship that began Monday.
‘Events in speed skating and figure skating would be organised in sub-junior, junior and senior categories,’ Simla Ice Skating Club secretary Bhuvnesh Banga told IANS.
He said a training camp was organised here by the US-based skating coach Emmy Parekh before the meet.
‘A thick layer of ice has been regularly forming on the clay ground rink these days. This shows that the night temperature has dipped sharply,’ Banga added.
Shimla Monday recorded a low of 3.7 degrees Celsius.
The skating rink was set up in 1920 by Irish military officer who inadvertently kept a bucket of water outside his residence one day and found that it had frozen in the morning. This gave him the idea of a skating rink and he created a small one of his own.
The officer also trained his Indian servants in the art of sprinkling water on clay ground that freezes under natural conditions.
A club official said crystal-clear skies are ideal for the natural formation of ice.
‘If the sky is cloudy, the night temperature rises and if it’s clear, the temperature dips. The high humidity level enables the water to freeze quickly,’ he said.
The club is affiliated to the Ice Skating Association of India and the Winter Games Federation of India. The first national ice skating championship was organised here by the Indian Olympic Association in 2000.
